By Ewan Toledo
For decades California community college students who did not test into college-level math and English could take classes to help them catch up.
Starting this summer everyone will be tossed right into the deep end of the pool.
California’s state legislature has decided that developmental courses created to prepare students for college coursework may cause many students to take too many extra classes. That, in turn, leads to discouragement and dropouts.
Southwestern College pulled prerequisite developmental courses off its master schedule in 2019, including Intermediate Algebra (Math 35, 45, 60 and 72) and College Composition (English 71, 99 and 114). Two remaining math courses (Math 60 and 72) were available during the spring 2023 semester, but no developmental English offerings.
Math and English faculty say they understand the motive, but insist the new laws hurt the students the state seems to want to help.
Mathematics Department Chair Kimberly Puen Eclar said she is concerned about students affected by the new changes.
“There will be people who want to pursue a STEM career who will not have that path available to them anymore because of this legislation,” she said.
The shift began when the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 705 in 2017. It pushes students directly into transfer-level courses with the option to take developmental courses only after their performance suggests a high likelihood of not passing. Last year Assembly Bill 1705 completely eliminated remedial options. It requires community colleges to place all students into transfer-level courses, regardless of their educational background and academic achievement.
SC English Department Chair John Rieder said a majority of English faculty have embraced the law, something English and Reading faculty dispute. Rieder said a creative new approach is working for English students.
“My inbox is not filled with students asking me to bring back developmental English,” he said. “I haven’t received one in three years.”
Students who seek extra help may enroll in English 115 support classes that use the Power Study Program which includes in-class tutors, he said.
“The Power Study Program is so great because both the Power Study leader and the teacher can circulate through the groups and give more support right there where students need it in real-time,” he said.
Not all reading and English faculty agree. Several argued that “the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction” by eliminating remedial classes and reclassifying them as non-credit offerings. Research by Promise Neighborhood warns that SC will very soon enroll legions of students entering at below college level in reading and writing.
“We are setting lots of students up for failure,” warned a reading educator. “We have pulled the rug out from under students who are coming to us for help.”
Pathways in the mathematics department face similar challenges, according to faculty. SC students who started in transfer-level math after the passing of AB 705 saw a triple increase in completion counts, according to the California Community Colleges website. At the same time, the completion rates for Latino and Black populations have fallen, according to college data.
Dr. Silvia Nadalet, dean of the School of Math, Science and Engineering, said the college is offering corequisite support classes that teach the fundamentals of math, along with noncredit algebra courses.
“Depending on your placement, we might require you to take a two-unit co-requisite support (class), so that some of this prerequisite material can be covered,” she said.
Math faculty are working on “self-guided” Canvas modules, she said. Students who want to review a specific concept can find help in the form of worksheets, she said.
Placement exams are no longer offered at any community college, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office. Class placement is now determined exclusively by high school transcripts.
SC President Dr. Mark Sanchez said the change is not about eliminating courses but redesigning the STEM pathway. He advises the faculty to set up a strong curriculum to meet the financial goals of the students.
“So (the students are) doing this, they’re taking courses with the intent of trying to get through as quickly as possible,” he said. “The longer we keep them in these sequences, the more they get frustrated.”
San Diego State University is working with SC to improve gateway transfer-level mathematics with a project called Mathematics Persistence through Inquiry and Equity. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project is a work in progress. Sanchez said it may take three to five years to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum.
Mathematics Department Chair Kimberly Puen Eclar is leading the project as a principal investigator. The goal, she said, is to improve equity in the classroom by elevating the skills of faculty and monitoring student success rates.
“We’re tracking the longevity of the student and how they did in math,” she said. “We (do not) have any answers (yet) because we are in the process of collecting data and doing the research.”
Not all students are ready to jump into transfer-level courses if they enter college without passing intermediate algebra, said Eclar. Students should have the option to take classes based on their different needs, she said, but the state has taken that away.
“The state has said it would be better for the students to take pre-calculus, fail and attempt precalculus a second time than to take intermediate algebra to get to precalculus,” she said.
Eclar said students need to learn math sequentially. Teaching the pre-calculus class with co-requisite support simultaneously will not address the learning gaps many students face, she said.
Another concern is the prospect of community colleges no longer offering precalculus classes by 2025, according to Eclar. Calculus is the first transfer-level mathematics course listed on the SC catalog. She said the new legislation will not require prerequisite courses as part of the major’s requirements, placing students directly in calculus from the very beginning of the STEM pathway.
“Students should only be allowed into calculus if their foundation (is) good,” she said, “but now it’s just trying to do all three levels at the same time, which I think is a horrible, horrible idea.”
UCSD junior Ricky Suarez, a former SC student, attributes his success to taking developmental math. He said passing intermediate algebra led to a full scholarship to UCSD.
Suarez said the current support system is insufficient. The fast pace of the refresher courses cannot replace a semester’s worth of learning, he said, making it difficult for students to catch up on their own time.
“I don’t want students to feel like they can’t do (STEM classes),” he said. “If you can’t learn (basic math) in community college, where can you learn it?”
Math Professor Peter Herrera said he has seen students enroll in pre-calculus with no algebra experience. He advises them to step back and take developmental classes first. Herrera said students are facing a disadvantage the choices are taken away in the name of equity.
“We need that extra chance to let the students go to a lower level to give them the knowledge and confidence that they can do it,” he said.
Herrera said he tries to help students build self-esteem through math.
“I believe all students can succeed, regardless of the level, if we give them the equitable support that they need and meet them at their level,” he said. “(We must) provide what they need to reach a common level of success. But we need the proper support to do that.”
